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Friday, December 14, 2012

Fabulous Feature Friday-Fay Thompson Lamb

Today I welcome an authoress who has given so much

to helping others learn, my friend, Fay Lamb.

Enter to win an autographed copy of Because of Me by Fay Lamb see below.

I met Fay through ACFW. Fay has volunteered as the coordinator for the critique loop with ACFW. This was no small task. She has consistently helped others in their writing journey, and I am one of the beneficiaries. I asked her to share her writing journey with us. Here is what she wrote:

God Works in Mysterious Ways

God
does work in mysterious ways, but one secret He has never kept from me is His
plan for me to write for Him. Well, let me rephrase that…I’ve never doubted I
would write. Even when I wanted to throw it all away, I understood that words
were in my blood and characters were my best friends. And then one day
following the loss of maybe the dearest person in my life—my grandmother, God
whispered in my ear and said, “You will write for Me.”

I hadn’t
been living a life that would make Grandma proud, and I surely wasn’t glorying
God with the choices I’d made and even those I would make afterward. My life
was filled with sorrow, pain, and grief, but God had a purpose for me, no
matter how much I railed against it. And I knew it.

God
didn’t use a big fish to swallow me whole and spew me out. Nothing that simple.
Instead, He allowed me to rush headlong toward a high cliff and to plunge over
it. But God often provides a way out of the dilemmas in which we find ourselves.
I’m convinced the limb sticking out from the slide of the rock face was there
only so that I’d have to hold on and gaze upward to see the hem of Christ’s
garment. I hung there for a while, wondering how I could both cling to the limb
and take hold of the safety Christ afforded.

Faith,
though, required my release of what I considered my safe hold in order to grasp
the hem of my dear Savior’s garment. He pulled me up, placed me on solid
ground, and began to walk away from the cliff with me securely tucked in His
loving arms. I didn’t look back, and I surrendered my words to Him.

However,
deciding to write for the Lord doesn’t mean the journey became an easy one. I
struggled, wondering if I’d ever see publication, and why God would call me to
write for Him.

Maybe
the most difficult question I asked in my writing career is the tired old question,
“What do I write about?” Most often, I received the same tiresome answer,
“Write about what you know?” For so long, I was stuck on the thought that I’d
never really done anything, never been anywhere, and what could I truly write
about that would be interesting to anyone.

Then
the truth hit me. Writers who declare, “Write about what you know” weren’t
being flippant. The advice runs deep into the core of why Christian fiction
authors write. You have to look beyond the surface of those words. I did, and
God led me to the perfect scripture that put it all into perspective for me.

Romans
8:28 says, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that
love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”

What
things work together for good? All things? Do you mean, Lord, that my
self-inflicted wounds, my losses, my grief, my happiness, my triumphs and my
failures…All those things that I know
about, those are what you want me to share?

Yes,
those things are what God, from the
time I was young enough to string words together, utilized to teach me to write
for Him, to glorify Him with the talents He set in my heart. To write what I know
as a Christian writer is to offer balm for a hurting world—both those who know
Christ and those who do not know Him. In the process, too, God covers my wounds
with his healing power.

I
don’t recommend you try to sail away from God in stormy seas or fling yourself
off a cliff to avoid His will for your life. Writers, more than most, cannot
escape their calling. Words ring in our ears. Characters play in our minds.
Accept the fact that God has placed them there. And write about all the things
that God has allowed you to experience…the good and the bad and know that God
has always purposed in your life for all things to work for good—for you and
for others that your life—your words—may touch.

Not your typical Christian fiction.

Michael’s fiancée, Issie Putnam, was brutally
attacked and Michael was imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit. Now he’s home
to set things right.

Two people stand in his way: Issie’s
son, Cole, and a madman.

Can Michael learn to love the child
Issie holds so close to her heart and protect him from the man who took
everything from Michael so long ago?

Available through all fine book
retailers, Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and Mountainview Publishing (http://www.trebleheartbooks.com/MVLamb), a division of Treble Heart Books. Autographed copies may
also be purchased through Fay’s website at www.faylamb.com.

To enter the contest for an autographed copy of Because of Me by Fay Lamb, leave a comment and become a follower if you aren't already (see the upper right corner of this blog to join). Please also include your email address (username (at) yahoo (dot) com) so I can contact you if you are the winner. The winner will be selected by a third party, random.org, and will be announced next week. U.S. residents only.

6 comments:

It is so true that all things work together for good to those who love the Lord. God has taken so many dark areas of my past and redeemed them. I am also writing a memoir that I hope will be used by God to help others who are hurting, others who need to grab hold of His hem. Praying you have a blessed and wonderful Christmas.

I think the joy I experience in writing has increased my faith along the way that it is something God gave me to do to work toward glorifying Him. I think He wants us to be joyful in our work. Sometimes writing can be quite a struggle to find just the right words or to learn the specifics of manuscript submission, etc. Those struggles require prayer and reliance on Him to provide. Joy is found in watching how He will provide and faith is built in the waiting.

I really like that last name, Lamb! I was a Smith before I married so I really notice the uniqueness of last names. Your writing journey sounds so familiar to me as I have not traveled much or done as many adventuresome things as others. I still live within a few miles of where I was born.

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